The Center for Health Research with Aberdeen Area Tribes has been designed to build on the Tribal Participatory Research Model (Fisher & Ball, 2002) that has been developed and implemented by Sanford Research/USD under their P20 Project EXPORT grant, currently in it's fifth year of funding (#5P20MD001631). This model provides an exemplary example of effective and mutually beneficial collaborative relationships between tribal communities and universities/research centers that have guided the development of this grant application and the approaches that are described in each of the Core Areas. Key elements of the model include: 1) building relationships and trust between the researchers and the Tribal communities that participate in research studies; 2) involving Tribal representatives in the design of research and program activities to ensure that Tribal culture, traditions, and community resources are appropriately incorporated; 3) involving Tribal members and organizations in the conduct of research activities and interventions, and providing funding for this Tribal involvement; 4) providing training and technical assistance to Tribal members who work with research teams to build skills for conducting intervention activities, data collection, and other research-related activities; and 5) providing interim and final reports on all research and other project activities, on an ongoing basis, to ensure that the information produced is available to Tribes for their use. The Center for Health Research with Aberdeen Area Tribes will maintain these principles for Tribal participation and involvement in the research, community outreach and information dissemination, and research education and training activities that will be conducted with the Tribes in the Aberdeen Area. During the preparation of this grant application, discussions were conducted with the Tribes and the Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairmen's Health Board (AATCHB) staff to identify Tribal priorities for the research and community outreach activities under the Center for Excellence. The AATCHB staff indicated that health promotion/prevention focused on women's health issues had been identified by Tribes in the region as a high priority. With this guidance, the two research studies were developed that would be conducted under this Research Core: one research study will evaluate a model of care for stress urinary incontinence in a group of American Indian women and the second project will investigate effective models for health promotion to improve preconception health.